Definition of "Indian"

Indian

/ˈɪɳ.ɖɪə̯n/

adjective
comparative more Indian, superlative most Indian
1. Of or relating to India or its people; or (formerly) of the East Indies.
2. (obsolete) Eastern; Oriental.
  Quotations
  The morrow next apprear'd with purple hayre / Yet dropping fresh out of the Indian fount, / And bringing light into the heavens fayre […] .
  1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie
3. Of or relating to the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
  Quotations
  The hardships of bark-collecting in the primeval forests of South America are of the severest kind, and undergone only by the half-civilized Indians and people of mixed race, in the pay of speculators or companies located in the towns.
  1879, Friedrich August Flückiger et al., Pharmacographia..., page 346
4. (Canada, US, of foods) Made with Indian corn or maize.
5. (chess) Designating any of various chess openings now characterised by black's attempt to control the board through knights and fianchettoed bishops rather than with a central pawn advance.
noun
plural Indians
1. A person from India.
2. An American Indian, a member of one of the indigenous peoples of the Americas (generally excluding the Aleut, Inuit, Metis, or Yupik).
  Quotations
  We stigmatize the Indians, also, as cowardly and treacherous, because they use stratagem in warfare in preference to open force; but in this they are fully justified by their rude code of honor.
  1820 July, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “Traits of Indian Character”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., New York, N.Y.: […] C. S. Van Winkle, […]
  High Jack had been drinking too much rum ever since we landed in Boca. You know how an Indian is—the palefaces fixed his clock when they introduced him to firewater.
  1909, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “He Also Serves”, in Options‎
  With savage desperation the Indian lunged his horse straight at Hopalong and, knife in hand, leaped for him!
  1951, Louis L'Amour, Rustlers of West Fork
3. (now rare, historical) An indigenous inhabitant of Australia, New Zealand or the Pacific islands.
4. (uncountable) Indian cuisine; traditional Indian food.
5. (UK, colloquial) A meal at (or taken away from) an Indian restaurant.
6. (UK, colloquial) An Indian restaurant.
7. Short for Mardi Gras Indian.
proper noun
1. (nonstandard) Any of the (unrelated) languages spoken by American Indians.
2. (nonstandard, rare) Any language spoken by natives of India, especially Hindi.
  Quotations
  [They said] 'Mutton can speak Indian', 'Mutton can see Kanchinjunga out of his bedroom window'[.]
  1968, Anne Rider, A hilltop in hazard, page 51